In recent years, wireless communication services for automobiles and mobile phones have increased greatly in the variety and number, along with the concomitant demands on telematics service call centers. A call center needs to be able to process requests in a timely fashion and find more efficient and automatic ways to respond to a service request. The processing of a service request may require a large amount of dedicated resources including the time of human and virtual advisors, modem time, and additional software applications used by the advisors for processing requests. Examples of subscriber requests that may benefit from an increased level of automation are user requests for running electronic diagnostics, locating a vehicle, unlocking a car door, honking a horn, or flashing headlights.
However, even with the use of virtual advisors, resources may be overextended and as the requests to a call center increase, the call center may be unable to process all the service requests successfully or it may need longer time to finish the process. Customers may be put on hold and service may be delayed.
It would be beneficial to have an alternative approach to request common and potentially automatic services such as the unlocking of doors. Ideally, this mechanism would be as effective as and more efficient than the current processing of service requests. An improved service request method would allow the user to call from any dial-tone phone, increase the throughput of caller traffic, and save phone-connection time. It would also allow service requests to be processed in more than one manner. The method would avoid the need to queue or deny the request based on the availability of modem lines and advisors, simplify the service request process, and increase the quality of service of the call center.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a method for initiating a service request to a mobile vehicle, and to overcome the deficiencies and obstacles described above.